BERKELEY, Calif., Feb. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Assemblymember Nancy Skinner (D-14), Chair, Committee on Natural Resources, working in partnership with California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr., has introduced AB 2514 (available here) – new legislation that will create a smarter, cleaner electric grid, increase the use of renewable energy, provide Californians with significant savings by avoiding costly new power plants and transmission lines, and reduce air pollution. This transformative legislation will also create thousands of permanent new green-collar jobs.

AB 2514 will achieve these benefits by closing the gap between the United States and other nations in investments and deployments of energy storage, a booming "green" industry that represents a significant economic development opportunity for California.

By mandating that utilities incorporate energy storage capacity – 2.25% of daytime peak demand for power by 2014 and 5% of peak demand by 2020 – the bill will provide much-needed lower electricity costs to consumers. Greater use of energy storage will provide the State with a cleaner and less costly alternative to the high costs of generating and supplying primarily fossil fuel-based power for only part-time daytime peak demand for power.

"Energy storage is the future -- it's a fast-growing clean technology industry that will save the state money and reduce pollution," said Attorney General Jerry Brown, the bill's sponsor. "What's even better is that this new technology could create 8,500 new jobs in California during the next decade."

"We applaud Assemblymember Skinner and Attorney General Brown's leadership in introducing this essential legislation. This bill will put California at the forefront of a growing global market that will spur economic development. Given major advances in energy storage, the industry is now ready to provide high-technology, affordable, reliable products for California's utilities and consumers," noted Janice Lin, Director of the California Energy Storage Alliance.

Currently, California uses fossil fuel-burning backup power plants, as well as coal-fired power imported from other states, to help meet its relentlessly growing demand for daytime peak power. This is costly, inefficient and harmful to California's air quality. Wider scale deployment of clean, cost-effective energy storage will enable California to reduce pollution from greenhouse gases and smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) by reducing the need for fossil fuel-based peaking power plants and imported coal-fired power. Further, energy storage will increase the value and use of intermittent renewable power such as wind and solar, which often relies on fossil fuel-based backup power. However, California is lagging behind other states in energy storage deployment. AB 2514 is available at:

Cost-effective and commercially ready energy storage is a key part of the newly emerging smart grid that will transform California's electricity grid into a modern, clean, sophisticated network fully integrating renewable and distributed power sources. Modern energy storage technologies, some in existence for decades and covering a wide range of sizes, power capacity, and discharge durations, include mechanical, chemical and thermal processes for storing energy for use at a later time. Energy storage has attracted significant investment capital and federal stimulus funding, with recently announced projects representing nearly 1,000 megawatts of new capacity. This will more than double the current installed capacity of energy storage.

The California Energy Storage Alliance

The California Energy Storage Alliance is an association of companies committed to the rapid expansion of energy storage to promote growth of renewable energy and a more reliable and secure electric system. Its members include a diverse group of companies ranging from electro-mechanical, electro-thermal and electro-chemical storage companies to system integrators and renewable energy component manufacturers and developers. (www.storagealliance.org).